Original recipes and photos with a hearty measure of facts, family, inspiration and humor. Everything food. Some reviews of area restaurants, some whimsical prose for reading pleasure.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Chicken Livers Revisited: Taming a Childhood Savage Beast!

I enjoyed creating this recipe for a couple of reasons. First off, as a child I absolutely abhorred the idea of eating liver, chicken or otherwise. Alas, I disliked the look, detested the fresh smell, and I could not quite wrap my head or stomach around the iron-y taste. Ironically, LOL, I got serious into cooking and wanted to revisit old nemeses like liver, scrapple, chocolate cake, Oreos, jello, rice, beans, Ramen noodles and bananas. Now I really enjoy those items and/or recipes containing them. This brings us to how I managed to become friends with liver as an adult. By marinating liver for about two hours in sherry or worcestershire, I basically eradicicted all the reasons I could not stand it. I helped boost it's flavor profile with wonderful aromatics like onion, garlic and celery. This in turn still may not be enough for some, but it was the answer for me.

Recipe:

1 lb. chicken livers, trimmed and rinsed

1/4 c. sherry or worcestershire

2 cloves garlic, pressed or finely minced

1 small onion, thinly sliced

1 stalk celery, thinly sliced on bias

Seasoned flour

oil for frying

SPST

In a flat bottomed vessel, add livers, sherry and garlic. Fold gently. SPST. Marinate for 1 to 3 hours in fridge until ready to cook.

When ready, heat about 1/8 inch oil in cast iron skillet to medium hot. Meanwhile, drain, pat dry and toss liver in seasoned flour and carefully add to pan. Cook for several minutes until golden color reaches up sides of livers and they have reduced in size by about 1/3, about 5 minutes. Turn livers and add onion and celery. SPST. Cover for about 3 of the 5 minutes to steam the veggies while frying then, remove cover to finish crisping the livers and slightly brown the veggies. Transfer to paper towels to drain and serve hot. Goes great with rice or with sandwich bread and Sriracha.